Beam Me Up

A few months ago I had the chance to meet Leonard Nimoy. He was doing some fund raising locally (Rockville) and was the guest speaker.  After his remarks, he was the host at an up-close and personal coffee get together. The photo is from the coffee.

Although I meet sports guys on a regular basis, I don’t dabble in movie stars.  In my mind, Leonard Nimoy is more than a movie star, he is more of a beacon to the stars of the human race.  He has played a character from another planet for all of his adult life.  That character, Spock, shows us a lot of what it means to be human.

It is possible to see why humans have so many facets to their personalities and emotions because Spock struggles with those particular human traits all the time.  In both television and movies, Spock is a role model for how to be a better human.

In the remarks he made that night in 2011, he explained how he grew up as a Russian immigrant in the Boston area.  How his yearning to be an actor deeply disappointed his family and how he ultimately became Spock.

One particular trait that the character Spock has is his greeting of “live long and prosper”.  He then spreads his hands creating a V between his middle and ring finger.  In Star Trek, that is a particularly Vulcan greeting.

In Nimoy’s retelling, the original idea came from him as a child.  In his Orthodox synagoge, there is a priestly blessing in which all members of the community are to cover or avert their eyes.  Event to the extent of covering their heads with a prayer shawl (tallit).  In the blessing, the rabbi spreads his hands in the traditional fashion of the ancient blessing, forming a V between his middle and ring fingers.

If you wonder how the young Nimoy knew all this, the answer is, he stole a glance when he should not have been looking.  He also remembered the blessing, it boils down to a familiar refrain of, “live long and prosper”.

When it came time to great a Vulcan priestess on the set of Star Trek, the writers were stumped on how to make this a special greeting.  Leonard Nimoy had the answer and the rest was history.